DHAKA: Hundreds of garment factories in Bangl­a­desh have shuttered as thousands of workers staged violent protests to demand a near-tripling of their wages, police said on Thursday.

Bangladesh’s 3,500 factories account for around 85 per cent of the South Asian country’s $55 billion in annual exports, supplying major Western brands including Adidas, Gap, H&M and Levi Strauss.

But conditions are dire for many of the sector’s four million workers, the vast majority of whom are wom­en whose monthly wages start at 8,300 taka ($75).

Police said workers had ransacked dozens of factories across Gazipur and other industrial neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka since the protests began over the weekend.

“More than 250 garment factories have been shut in the protests. Up to 50 factories have been ransacked and vandalised, including four or five which were set alight,” Gazipur police chief Sarwar Alam said.

Two workers have been killed and dozens more injured since protests began, according to police figures.

The Bangladesh Garm­ent Manufacturers and Exp­­orters Association, which represents factory owners, has offered a 25pc pay raise. The pledge is significantly short of the 23,000 taka ($209) monthly wage that the protest campaign has called for.

Garment workers say that a sharp increase in living costs has left them struggling to provide for their families. “We make expensive clothes. They get sold at higher prices abroad,” Nasima, 30, said.

“They make good money. But we don’t get a wage in accordance with that. Why can’t they pay us a higher wage, if they can sell the clothes at higher prices?”

The Clean Clothes Campaign group, a global network supporting worker rights, said “brands sourcing from Bangladesh have an undeniable role in the recent developments”, and that “most refused” to publicly back union demands for higher wages.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2023